India is passing through her most critical - perhaps dangerous - times. World's largest Democracy, India has today become the largest cesspool of official corruption, crime, political opportunism and caste/communal animosities. Political Parties are now Family Corporates, Bureaucracy their franchisee and crony capitalists their partners as they embark upon plundering the Nation together. Time for India to wake up and restart! One Anna or Kejriwal is not enough - Karan Kharb

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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Crusade for a Corruption free India

Dear Compatriot,

We are contacting you for a noble purpose. Every major problem we face today – individually or nationally – is rooted in CORRUPTION eg, organized crime, terrorism, communal violence, regional chauvinism and administrative apathy, red tape and inefficiency. People, though disgusted and angry, reconcile and adjust to it in their own ways.

Kindly have a look at our ground realities:-

1. It is no secret that there has been a steady degeneration in the quality of our politicians with every successive Lok Sabha becoming home to increasing number of criminals. In the previous Lok Sabha we had 123 tainted MPs; now we have 158 (including 73 of them involved in serious crimes). They are steadily moving towards majority and the day is not far when they will gang-up to form a Government of ‘like-minded’ MPs/groups!

2. People have lost faith in police and civil Administration because remedies through these agencies have become too costly and unaffordable. Emergence of extra-constitutional power groups like Maoists/Naxalites and Senas of various hues are replacing Administrative authority in various states. People at large find their dispensation of justice speedier and fairer. Little wonder, they have ‘liberated zones’ where the local Administration dare not venture! In other peaceful/progressive looking areas, the henchmen of local politicians call the shots.

3. Basic amenities like health care are in no less pitiable state. While patients are left to languish and die in pathetically unhygienic conditions in government hospitals, there are doctors who are butchering people to trade kidneys, eyes and other human organs with impunity.

4. The option of judicial remedies is riddled with murkier complexities. We have it here straight from the horse’s mouth. Recording their helplessness at the ‘collapse of criminal justice in the country’ during hearing of a high profile hit-and-run case of Delhi on 5th February 2009, the honourable Supreme Court went on to say, “What happened in the current case is only the tip of the iceberg. This is a case of accident. We have seen cases involving smuggling of arms, RDX, narcotics where the accused get away. But we are helpless.” (TOI, 06 Feb 09).

5. Scams are so rampant that new ones hardly make a news. There are varying estimates of black money from India stashed in Swiss banks but what is commonly believed and not been denied by Indian Government is that India tops the list of countries whose black money is parked in these banks. According to one estimate this Indian money in Swiss banks ranges between Rs 50-75 lakh crore (ie, $1 – 1.5 trillion). Now, compare this with the total ‘receipts’ that our Finance Minister hopes to muster up for the national budget (2010-11): Rs. 10.21 lakh crore with an alarming fiscal deficit of Rs. 3.81 lakh crore!

6. We all have personal experiences where we have had to ‘negotiate and pay our way out’ of sinister traps of unscrupulous officers and stooges. Simple things like licenses, admissions, address verifications, medical certificates, FIR…….nothing moves by rules. Money and/or ‘right contact’ can move everything that rules can’t.

7. Frustration of people manifests itself in weird ways. There is unprecedented rise in fatal road accidents, suicides by students and young professionals, rapes and murders…. People are losing their faith in peaceful democratic ways of protest and demonstration.

We have launched a crusade against this malaise where awakened and influential Indians like you can help in building up the desired momentum. It is heartening that Shri Shambhu Dutta, a nonagenarian Gandhian who participated in the Quit India Movement with Gandhi ji is leading this crusade with youthful zeal and vigour.

Having realised that to clean a stair case we have to begin at the top and after an indepth study of the problem and consultations with experts, senior retired Judges, leading Advocates and fraternal NGOs, we formulated & presented to the Parliament and Prime Minister, our following three demands or remedial measures to eliminate political corruption for all time to come:-

(I) Appointment of a three member effective Lok Pal (National Ombudsman or RashtriyaLok Ayukta) to adjudicate speedily the bonafide and serious complaints made on affidavits against Members of Parliament, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers. These complaints may relate to abuse of authority for personal or party gains, corruption, bribery, misuse of Government privileges and facilities.

(II) Disqualification of candidates for election to Parliament and State Legislatures against whom serious criminal cases involving moral turpitude, filed six months before the election, are going on (as recommended by former two Chief Election Commissioners), unless there is a stay or order in restraint by the High Court concerned.

(III) Forfeiture of illegally acquired property of public servants and functionaries, as recommended by the Law Commission of India under the then Chairman, Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, as far back as February 1999. The Law Commission of India even sent a fool-proof draft bill for the purpose to the Law Ministry but no action was taken.

It is noteworthy that all the above three remedial measures were also recommended inunequivocal terms by the second Administrative Reforms Commission appointed by the UPA(1)Government in their ‘Report on Ethical Governance’ submitted in January 2007.

This is every Indian citizen’s war where everyone’s effort counts. There is none too poor, too weak or too old to wage this noble war. For the pessimists who say ‘Corruption cannot go’ let me assure that our joint effort shall surely injure and weaken it, if not kill, and deny it the express way it has now. those who are not opposing CORRUPTION are conniving with it – and, therefore, helping it to flourish.

Your contribution – whatever form you choose – is going to be valuable in this effort. From the three options, you are welcome to choose the way in which you wish to lend support to this noble Cause. Kindly also forward this mail with your endorsement to your friends for wider circulation.

Contributors

Welcome to People Power

People are the Nation. Let's do everything in our power to multiply and build up 'People Power'. We must force the Government to rid the system of corruption and callousness. The least we can do is to expose and humiliate the corrupt officials, self-serving politicians, Vadra-DLF or Gadkari type of business culture, and the divisive forces destroying public goodwill in the name of caste, religion and region.

Fortunately, all these evils are not too many. Nor are they too brave. Anna, Ramdev and Kejriwal have exposed how timidly and stupidly the corrupt react. All evil is concentrated in a few hands at the top from where the fountain of corruption flows downwards. This muck, therefore, cannot be cleaned up from bottom upwards. The clean up has to start from the top!